Opinion

Has decay really set in Europe?

THE United States of Europe. Does this name ring the bells? Obviously, it is the new European Union that has raised its painted head across the Atlantic. Europe, a colonialist continent, is decaying and, in some places, is even collapsing. That brings to our senses how bad things are going. Amazingly, European leaders do not think that anything has faulted, big time, or small time, around their continent.North America is decaying as well but there, people do not mind; they are not even inclined to compare things for reference. They only ‘feel that things are not going well.’ If everything else fails in life, Americans simply try to get themselves on to some second or third successive job simply to survive somehow. Talking about life in America: this is really how this country operates.On both sides of the ‘pond’-Atlantic, the establishment is in a state of dire panic. Their world is in crisis and the ‘crises’ arrived mainly because several great countries, including China, Russia, Iran, South Africa, Turkey, Venezuela, North Korea and the Philippines, openly refuse to play the game in accordance with the script drawn in Washington, London and Paris.Suddenly, these nations have no more appetite left for sacrificing their own people at the altar of well-being of the citizens of the western hemisphere. Several countries, including Venezuela and Syria, are even willing to go on to fight for their real independence as well.Despite insane and, reportedly, extreme embargo and sanctions imposed on them by the west, China, Russia and Iran are now flourishing, or nearly so, in many fields and doing much better than Europe and North America. If they are really pushed any further, China, Russia and their allies combined have the ability to easily impact the western system that may adversely affect the economy of the United States, an economy which was built on clay and unserviceable debt. It is also becoming clear that militarily, perhaps, the Pentagon may never bring the counterparts down to knees in those countries.After terrorising the world for ages, the superpower west is now almost exhausted. Nations are resisting all attempts to create terror, morally, economically, socially and, even, militarily. These so-called big powers desire capriciously but have no plans to improve the state of their world. They are unlikely even to think in such terms.The west perhaps loves to hate China and every other country that does have progressive, internationalist agenda. They have smeared China’s president Xi Jinping and his brainchild, the Belt and Road Initiative, but there is nothing new and exciting in lieu that the west is able to offer to the world.Yes, of course, those regime changes, coups, military interventions and theft of natural resources, but anything else? No. After this, there is complete silence.During my visit to Europe, in March, including the Czech Republic (now renamed to Czechia, a country that enjoys a higher Human Development Index defined by the UNDP than Italy or Spain, I saw several young, decently dressed men, picking through garbage bins right in front of the hotel I had stayed in looking for food.I also observed young Europeans kneeling and begging in Stuttgart, the second richest city in Germany where both Mercedes and Porsche cars are produced.What I did observe in all seven countries of the European Union that I visited, was confusion, also compounded by indifference, extreme selfishness and almost grotesque idleness. In total contrast to Asia, everybody in Europe was obsessed with their ‘rights’ and privileges while no one gave a slightest damn about their obligations or responsibilities.When my plane from Copenhagen landed in Germany, it had begun to rain. It was not heavy, pouring rain; just ‘small’ rain showers. The Canadair jet operated by SAS is a small aircraft and it could not get a gate. It parked a few meters from the terminal and the captain sheepishly announced that ground staff had refused to bring a bus because of the ongoing lightning and the downpour (call this, drizzle).And so, we stayed inside the plane for 10 minutes, 20 minutes… half an hour. Finally, the ‘lightning’ ended. However, the drizzle continued. For the next 40 minutes, no bus was available. One hour later, a bus appeared. A man from the ground staff emerged leisurely, totally wrapped in plastic, protected hermetically from rain. Passengers, on the other hand, were not even offered umbrellas.‘I love myself’, I later read graffiti in the centre of the city.The graffiti was not far from the central train station which is currently being refurbished at the cost of reportedly several billion euros and much against the will of the citizens. The monstrous project is marching on at an insanely lazy pace with only five or perhaps six construction workers detectable at a time down in the tremendous excavations.Stuttgart is an unbelievably dirty city. People often do not like to go to work and streets are active with drunk ‘busy bees’. They occupy space all over and so do the beggars on the streets. It is as if for decades, no one had any face-lift of this city. Sometime ago, free museums were charging hefty entrance fees. Again as a consequence to their policies, most of the public benches have disappeared from parks and avenues.The decay is but ubiquitous. The aggrieved commuters of the German rail system now believe that their system is virtually collapsing. Almost all trains are late from the ‘regional’ to the once glorified ICE (these German ‘bullet trains’ are actually moving slower, on an average, even in comparison with some Indonesian inter-city expresses).The services provided everywhere in Europe, from Finland to Italy, continues to be grotesquely slow. Convenience stores, cafes, hotels all are understaffed, badly run and managed by mostly arrogant staff members. Humans are often replaced by dysfunctional machines. Signs of tension have existed everywhere and the bad mood is equally omnipresent. Demanding anything is unthinkable; one risks being snapped at, insulted, or sent to hell.I still remember how western propaganda used to glorify services in the capitalist countries when we were growing up in the city of Dhaka.The shopkeepers had genuinely believed: ‘The customer must always be treated like a god!’Yes, right! How laughable in the present context!For centuries, ‘European workers’ were ‘subsidised’ by colonialist and neo-colonialist plunderers, perpetrated in all non-white corners of the world. They ended up being spoilt, showered with benefits, and became unproductive. That was fine for the elite as long as the masses had kept voting for the imperialist regime of the west.‘The proletariat’ eventually became right-wing, imperialist, even hedonistic.I saw a lot this time and soon I intend to write much more, about the changes I have seen recently.What I did not witness was hope or enthusiasm. There was no optimism. No healthy and productive exchange of ideas or profound debate something I am so used to observing in China, or Russia, or perhaps if I ever visit Venezuela. There existed just confusion, apathy and decay everywhere.And perhaps, ‘hate’ those countries that are better, more human, more advanced and full of socialist enthusiasm.There was more to it in my travels inside the EU. Italy certainly felt somewhat different.Again, I met great left-wing thinkers there: philosophers, professors, film makers and journalists. I also visited the Sapienza University in Rome, perhaps the biggest, higher learning institution in Europe. All of that was fantastic and enlightening, but was this really Italy?A day after I had left Rome, Italians went to the polls. And they withdrew their supports from my friends of the Five-Star Movement, leaving them with just over 17 per cent while doubling the backing for the extreme right-wing Northern League.This virtually happened all over Europe.Unfortunately in the United Kingdom, the Labour Party has lost while right-wing Brexit forces gained significantly. Extreme right-wing, even near-fascist parties, reached unexpected heights.It was all ‘me, me, and me in politics’. A likely mismatch of ‘political selfies’ Me had enough of immigrants. Me wants better benefits. Me wants better medical care, shorter working hours. And so on…Who pays for it, now? Does anyone in Europe seems to care? Not once did I hear any European politicians lamenting about the plundering of West Papua or Borneo, about Amazonia or the Middle East, let alone Africa.And what about immigration? Did we hear anything about that nuisance of European refugees, millions of them, many illegal that have descended in the last decades on Southeast Asia, East Africa, Latin America, and even the Indian Sub Continent? They are escaping in hordes from meaninglessness, depression and existential emptiness. In the process, they are stripping the local people of land, real estate, beaches and everything.‘Immigrants out’. This call is just fine. Then ‘European immigrants out from the rest of the world’ has to follow suit, too. Being realistic, there is enough of the one-sidedness now. The recent EU elections clearly had showed that Europe has not evolved. For countless dark centuries, it used to live only for its pleasure, murdering millions in order to support its high life enjoyed by a privileged few. At this moment, the country is trying to reshuffle its political and administrative system so that it can continue doing the same more efficiently.On top of it, absurdly, the world is expected to pity that overpaid and badly performing, mainly, right-wing and lethargic European proletariat and their sacrifice of further tens of millions of people just in order to further increase its ‘standards of living’.All this should not be allowed to happen. Never again. It has to be stopped.What Europe has achieved so far at the expense of billions of lives of ‘the others’ is definitely not worth dying for.Beware of Europe and its people! Study its history. Study its imperialism, colonialism and the genocide the people of this god-forsaken continent have been spreading all over the world.They want to put the interests of their countries first? Wonderful. Let us do exactly the same in the east: the people of Russia first, too. China first. And, Asia, Africa, India and Bangladesh as well. Also, Latin America first, as well. Let them be second to none. Why not?